


Don't Let Dead Get You Down

by Zaiya (iqoras)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 03:35:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13449675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iqoras/pseuds/Zaiya
Summary: I am a monster.This is something I have always been able to say but with a different meaning. Now, though the old way is still true, I am a monster because I am dead. I must feast upon the flesh of the living to continue on in the macabre way that I do.





	Don't Let Dead Get You Down

 

> I am a monster.
> 
> This is something I have always been able to say but with a different meaning. Now, though the old way is still true, I am a monster because I am dead. I must feast upon the flesh of the living to continue on in the macabre way that I do.
> 
> The media calls us zombies and I suppose that the name fits to an extent. They know about us but we are only noticed when we are rabid. And we are only rabid when we are starved, when we have not tasted living flesh in some time. They notice us when we are mad but otherwise we fit in. 
> 
> They believe our virus to be contained. They beat back the few instances of my kind raving in public. Sometimes I wonder how they would react if they knew how many of us there truly were...
> 
>  

Fingers stagnate, words no longer flowing eagerly from brain to bone. Is there even a point in writing this? She doesn’t know but she  **hopes** —she hopes that eventually her words will see light. Perhaps one day, if she keeps writing, the world will come to accept the living dead. Maybe they will help regulate their feedings, would find a different way to supply their food. Maybe they would sympathize with them. But that future was so far away.

          As things were now, it’s all Kati can do to stand up and walk away from the computer. Ever since she returned to America, she has been lost. She follows her routine and waits until graduation—but then what? Though she’ll have a bachelor’s degree, she’ll still be dead. She’ll still need to prey on the depraved for their flesh.

          It had been her dream, but sometimes she curses going to Japan. The study-abroad experience had been great, had been better than her imagination had ever supplied, until she had been bitten. Until she had  _ died _ . It hadn’t been her choice. She was a victim as much as the people she ate were. 

          Kati shook her head. She couldn’t dwell on this. She grit her teeth and left her dorm, storming from the building. Students looked at her as if she were an antisocial surprise rather than a zombie and she supposed, to them, she was. They rarely ever saw her; she usually only came out for classes or at night, every few weeks, when she had to find someone to eat.

          The sky was dark blue, stains of white floating into random shapes. Once upon a time, she had been able to look at those stains and see pictures. She could find stories in the clouds. Now, she saw them as an infection. She pitied the sky—with such constant invaders, it’s no wonder that it was always blue. She heard the footsteps pattering behind her, hearing enhanced as it was, before anything else.

          “Kati! Wait up.” Her dorm mate, Hannah Lewis, ran up to her, eyes wide and cautious.  _ Afraid _ . Ever since her change, Kati had been a walking cloud of angst. Who could blame her? She was dead. Still, Hannah normally powered through Kati’s moods with a stubborn determination and loyalty that would have made Kati’s heart warm with affection were it were still alive.

          “What’s up?” Hannah had caught up to her and was now trying to catch her breath. Kati couldn’t help but smile.

          “Walking,” she said. Hannah snorted and rolled her eyes. 

          “Yeah, okay. But what’s really up?” When her question met with silence, she continued. “Can I ask you something?” Kati shrugged. “Ever since this semester began. . . since you came back from Japan. . . you’ve been weird. Do you want to talk about it?”

          Kati’s first reaction was to say no. But as she opened her mouth to shoot off the thoughtless rejection, she caught herself. Why  _ not _ ? Why couldn’t she talk about it? It’s not as if her secret would stay a secret for much longer! She was dead and the world was bound to find out eventually! So she shrugged, the action mindless and more reminiscent of the media’s zombie than her actions usually were.

          “You know the zombies?” Everyone did. The news had gone wild after the first outbreak and containment. Social media had blown up. The few cases the world had seen of zombies had left people terrified and muttering about massacres. 

          “Of course.”

          “I’m one.” 

          Hannah laughed, thinking the words to be a joke, which Kati supposed was fair. The two were known to joke with one another. And this offered up another chance to cover for herself. Being the coward that she was, she took it. “No, man, I’m just. . . I’ll talk to you about it when I figure it out a bit more myself, okay?” 

          Hannah nodded sagely. “Sure thing, bro. But I’m always here, okay?” Kati hummed her assent and smiled at her roommate fondly. “The zombie thing would make sense, though. You’ve been looking kind of dead lately.” 

          Kati pressed her lips together tightly, expression blank, but the pressure was not enough to contain her laughter. It started with twitching in her lips and ended with the loudest laugh she’s managed since her death. 

          Okay, so she was dead and there really was no changing that. But she was also a senior in college and well on her way to getting her degree. She may need to occasionally hunt down murderers and abusers to devour but she was managing. She still had things that she wanted to do. Monster she may be but she was also still an author, an artist, a student, and much, much, much more. 

          She’d be okay.

          She’d figure this out.

          “Want to go watch a movie?” Kati asked. 

          Hannah whooped. “Heck yeah I do!”

          The dead are still capable of dreaming. 


End file.
